(a) Field
The invention relates to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”), which is one of the most common types of flat panel displays currently in use, includes two sheets of display panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode, a common electrode, and the like, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The LCD generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes to determine alignment of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer through the generated electric field and control polarization of incident light, thereby displaying images.
The LCD includes a switching element connected to the pixel electrode, a plurality of signal lines such as a gate line and a data line for controlling the switching element and applying a voltage to the pixel electrode, and a driver for applying a driving signal to the signal line and driving a display panel.
The driver includes a gate driver for supplying a gate signal including a gate-on voltage or a gate-off voltage to the gate line of the display panel, a data driver for supplying a data signal to the data line of the display panel, and a signal controller for controlling the data driver and the gate driver.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment (“VA”) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that their long axes are perpendicular to the display panels in the absence of an electric field, is spotlighted because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
In the VA mode LCD, a wide viewing angle that is an important characteristic may be realized by forming cutouts such as minute slits, or protrusions, in the field-generating electrodes. Since the cutouts and protrusions may determine the tilt directions of the LC molecules, the tilt directions may be distributed in various directions by using the cutouts and protrusions such that the reference viewing angle is widened.